ECONOMY

Azerbaijan to join starp-up project organized in 37 countries

AzerTAg.az

Barama Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center of Azercell Telecom contributes next international project. This time the center takes part in the largest “green” business idea competition called ClimateLaunchpad as a bronze sponsor. The competition in which Azerbaijan will be represented for the first time is held in 37 countries over the world. The project offers great progress path for startups and authors of ideas, admitted for the programme with its learning environment and large coverage.

As a preparation for local competition scheduled for August, 14 teams from Azerbaijan have been involved in intensive training programmes since May. The training programmes are carried out by Hans Westerhof, ClimateLaunchpad team member from the Netherlands and expert in startups and innovative technologies, as well as local trainers. In these programmes the participants learn critical hands-on business skills for setting up a startup by applying them to their own projects. Following the two-day bootcamp, the teams will join local coaching sessions for 14 weeks. During the sessions they will work on essential business concepts determined by ClimateLaunchpad and get prepared for the final round. Later, the teams will pitch their ideas before the judging panel, which will also include a representative from ClimateLaunchpad, and compete to take top three places and qualify for Grand Finale. Top 3 teams from each of 37 countries will enter Grand Finale held in October 2017 and pitch before European investors and entrepreneurs.

Top 10 startups of Grand Finale will join an 18-month Climate-KIC Accelerator where small ideas grow into great businesses. The programme offers financial support of up to EUR 95,000 for each project in three stages.

The winning country will host Grand Finale next year. ClimateLaunchpad is officially organized by Social Innovation Lab with the support of High Technologies Park of National Academy of Sciences (gold sponsor) and Barama Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center of Azercell Telecom (bronze sponsor). The project is further supported by Next Step Innovation Center, Global Startup Hub, Baku Engineering University Technopark and Youth Inc. Business Incubation Center.